A writer talks about writing and everything else.

Archive for February, 2013

It has been a difficult week. Those of you who know me are aware I am having surgery on the 28th–Total Knee Replacement. My knee has become increasingly more painful and I just haven’t felt much like working at the computer.

Not only that, I have to try to get so much accomplished in the housekeeping line and seems I am the only one who thinks my house is not clean and needs anything doing to it! Both The Husband and Daughter have the attitude “So what–who cares–nobody notices.”

Well I do, and I care. I also think that they are both so scared that I will find fault with their efforts–that they won’t come up to my standards (which I agree, they probably wouldn’t–they’re not the best housekeepers in the world) so they try to convince me that nobody does care.

The instructions from the hospital tell me I need to get all my laundry done, meals cooked for freezing, shopping taken care of–because apparently I won’t be able to do any of that for at least 6 weeks (wow.) So I’ve been trying to get as much done as I can, and still feel as if I have a lot to do, and only a couple of days to do it in. All while handling a cartilage-less and very painful knee that keeps “giving way” and locking up with a jolt of pain that makes me breathless. But I will survive.

Although the doctor–together with everybody I know who has had this same surgery–tells me I will have significantly more pain immediately after, for about 4 weeks or more, at least the pain should subside with time. I hope. If I can keep up with the post-surgery therapy.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for news about writing contests that I might want to enter. Short stories and Flash Fiction appeal to me, and when I come across an invitation to enter one, I visit the website of the magazine to study what’s gone before. Creative Writing courses in school and courses taken through the Institute of Children’s Literature taught me that a “story”, be it long or short, to be a story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. My short stories do that–even though my endings are somewhat weird and paranormal tail-twists.

Reading some of the winning entries with various online magazines have me puzzled. I read works that are considered Flash Fiction, and works that are much longer. Mostly they appear to me, mere ramblings–they don’t tell a story. They start–yes, they start; but then there’s no apparent middle, and they end abruptly, leaving me thinking “What?” Or even “So what?” And, more often than not, “What on earth was that all about?”

Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places. I suppose I shall just have to look in different places.

Or am I wrong in my belief that a story, whether 500 words or 50,000 words, should be a story, with exciting things happening? A story with conflicts, solutions, and culminating in a satisfactory ending (or, in my case a “wow I didn’t expect that” ending.)

And don’t get me started on poetry! Some of the so-called poems I read seem to be nothing but a conglomeration of words collected together because the author likes the sound of them, and which, like some modern art pieces that are interpreted by the whim of the viewer, only have meaning to pretentious readers.

I do have poet friends who write meaningful lines, words that express and convey feelings; words that send shivers down one’s spine or bring tears to one’s eyes, laughter to one’s heart. That is what I think a poem should do–just as a story should leave one feeling satisfied, from its beginning, through its middle, to its end.

And they really are wanderings–I haven’t got an idea in my head about what to write. My mind is buzzing with ideas for my “new” Work-in-Progress, however. I have changed my characters to reflect a more adult form of interaction between them and my protagonist. I had generated a cast of characters for the YA version, and there are at least three of them that I really like, but don’t know if they will fit in my new version. Now, I don’t know whether to adjust the story to make a place for them, or whether to put them in the “future possibility” file drawer! In the YA version, they worked, but in the adult story there really isn’t a prominent place for them.

What does one do with wonderful characters? Make a new story for them–or modify them to fit the current story? Or simply modify the story to fit them?

Speaking of stories, I am tickled that I will have two of my writings in the East Texas Writer’s Association Anthology, “‘TIS THE SEASON”, which will be on sale later this year. One is a story that is quite a departure for me–a romance; believe it or not, the story is based, albeit loosely, on an actual happening. The other work is an article that came about as a result of mine and The Husband’s favorite (one of them) activities–fishing.

I did have a Pet Peeve I was going to write about–but I forgot what it was! I wrote it down, now I can’t find where I wrote it. You know, since I carry the telephone and a cell phone around with me from room to room, I wish one of them had a mini-tape recorder attached so I could speak a word or two and record for my memory’s sake! Please don’t tell me that my cell phone would probably have some way of doing that–I have a hard enough time using it to send a text message!

Okay–new Pet Peeve–growing old!

See? I said this would be real snake-like wanderings. And I think this is enough for today.